When astronauts fly to Mars and other far-flung destinations across the galaxy, they won’t have
to rely solely on freeze-dried meat and powdered meals for sustenance.

Future space travelers might just dine on fresh salads.

Where will they get their vegetables? A team from Ohio State University designed an automated
system for growing produce in NASA’s Deep Space Habitat, an experimental space module with living
quarters, work spaces and laboratories.

The space agency hopes the module one day will enable human exploration in faraway environments.
Until then, NASA invites teams every year from across the country to design innovations that will
help it meet this goal.

Ohio State was one of four teams chosen to participate this year in the program,
which began in 2011. The OSU unit controls irrigation while monitoring the temperature and health
of the plants. The system also detects water loss and estimates plant growth through a weight plate
on the bottom of the unit.

“The whole thing is automated because the crew’s time is so valuable. It’s not
really worth it for them to be up there watering plants,” said Mason Young, who graduated from Ohio
State in June with a bachelor’s degree in food, agriculture and bioengineering. He now works for
Scotts Miracle-Gro.

The equipment used on the International Space Station to grow plants is not
automated, said Peter Ling, an OSU faculty adviser for the project.

There is another benefit as well: “The plants are not only providing food, but
oxygen,” Ling said.

Ohio State’s project is part of NASA’s second eXploration Habitat Academic
Innovation Challenge, a university-level competition designed to get students involved in science,
technology, engineering and math.

Concepts designed by the universities participating in the competition could be
used for future manned space missions, said Scott Howe, a senior systems engineer for NASA and
project manager for the X-Hab Challenge.

Other universities selected for the challenge — Oklahoma State University, the
University of Mary-land and the University of Bridge-port, Conn. — contributed their own designs,
including living spaces and a robotic arm.

Not everything the college teams create will make it into space.

“OSU didn’t create a flight-ready product, but ... what the students did will be
in the pedigree of what actually goes up into space,” Howe said.

Young said the OSU team’s entry is “something that will be a good jumping-off
point, a good basis” for what NASA scientists hope to send into space one day.

“We were on a tight budget, so it was difficult for us to live up to the
technical aspirations that NASA has,” he said. Ohio State received about $20,000 from NASA to
complete the project, Ling said.

This sort of system would be especially useful if humans decide to visit Mars.
NASA hopes to send astronauts there by 2035, Howe said. A Mars mission could last as long as three
years.

“The lighter we can make the spacecraft, that would allow us to get more
capability into space,” Howe said. “There will come a time when it will be more beneficial to grow
(food) there” than take it with them.

Because weight is a concern, plants in the food-production system would grow in
a nutrient solution instead of soil.

Ohio State created a small-scale system, but it could be expanded to suit NASA’s
needs, Howe said.

Young said a space garden could prove therapeutic for astronauts spending years
away from the lush landscapes of Earth.

“There’s ... a psychological aspect,” he said.

The space-garden system Ohio State created consists of a plastic plant-growth
tray that sits atop an 11-inch by 18-inch metal plate. Eight such plates could fit within the Deep
Space Habitat’s plant atrium.

The OSU system, which grew lettuce and radishes, was designed to fit within the
constraints of the Deep Space Habitat. If NASA sends a larger food-production system into space, it
could be sent to Mars separately, Howe said.

NASA tested the garden at the Johnson Space Center in Houston last month.
Members of the OSU team installed their system in the Deep Space Habitat before the two-week test
began.

“It was pretty incredible. It was the most innovative workshop that you could
ever be in,” Young said. “(NASA) has a machine for every kind of mechanical, electrical task that
you could want.

“To go from working in a back room at Ohio State to a giant warehouse filled
with machines that no one else owns or has, it was just remarkable.”

During the test, a four-person crew simulated a deep-space mission and pitted
OSU’s automated garden against existing systems. The testing went well, and the OSU team heard no
complaints, Ling said.

Everything NASA learns will help the agency prepare for the future, officials
say.

“The ultimate goal is to eventually put humans on the surface of Mars,” Howe
said.

Pamela Engel is a fellow in Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
Statehouse News Bureau.